A Chosen Race

5th Sunday of Easter – A                                                                   LSB #’s 822, 549:1-3; 549:4-7
Text – 1 Peter 2:9
 
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 
 
A CHOSEN RACE
 
 
The topic of race  can bring out a tremendous amount of emotion  in the United States.  Horrific crimes were committed in our nation & the hatred it still brings out in people today is disheartening  at best.   Even considering race in its Biblical context  is complicated  because God’s Word was twisted by those who claimed  that enslaving people was part of God’s design. 
However,  in that regard,  the Word of God is clear that all human beings are of the same race.  All people throughout history  have descended from one couple – from Adam & Eve.   Among all the other horrors of this world,  their sin also gave us the curse  of racist thinking. 
Then, because of the arrogance & evil of mankind, the Creator confused the languages of the people at the Tower of Babel.  He also caused them to be dispersed across the land as they’d been commanded  yet refused to do.  Yahweh wanted the people to be fruitful & multiply across the world.  They  all wanted to stay in the same place & make a name for themselves. 
Once the people were dispersed, significant differences developed in culture from one place to another.  Combined with the confused languages, the amount of evil that men could do together was curbed.  However, when one group of people doesn’t understand another’s ways & customs,  our sinful nature easily labels those other people groups as strange & inferior. 
Taken to its extreme,  Satan & sin  would divide the world into the anarchy of every man for himself.  To say, “It’s a dog eat dog world,” is to describe what Adam & Eve brought into the human race as they automatically spread the blame for their rebellion.  Eve blamed the serpent, while Adam blamed Eve  & even Yahweh who gave her  to him.   As Peter wrote his letter to Christians scattered across the Roman world, they too  knew the evils brought about  by being different.  Many of them were aliens & exiles, slaves & women,  all of them  marginal people who were easy & constant targets of ridicule & persecution.  They had none of the civil rights protections that so many people of our nation  take so for granted today. 
In the face of such unrelenting persecution & danger, the Christians, Peter was writing to, understandably  felt vulnerable & questioned  the value of their faith in Jesus.  If Christ had saved them from damnation, where was the evidence of it?   Yet, those are exactly the people whom our Lord loves to save. 
People in our nation, who have flat out  rejected Jesus as Lord,  act as if they are lord themselves.  And, that’s no different than their father  because all self-righteousness in God’s creation began with Satan & his fall.  That’s why Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous  but sinners  to repentance.”  (Luke 5:32 ESV)   He is calling us back to Himself. 
With the evil of Satan at work in our hearts & minds,  it’s no wonder that many people have a low opinion of their status.  They are constantly ridiculed & persecuted  so they assume it’s because they have no worth or value in this world.   Yet,  those are exactly the people whom our Lord loves to save.  He loves to save those who recognize they cannot help themselves. 
Yahweh created us to be holy & He longs to restore you & me to that status.  For that reason, the 2nd person of the Holy Trinity, the very Son of God,  took on human flesh & blood so that He could be crucified & then be raised from the dead in flesh & blood.  On Easter morning Jesus became the firstborn  of a new human race, one that is undefiled by sin.  
Jesus is the firstborn of that new chosen race.  All who trust in Him will join Him at the final resurrection as perfect & holy children of God.  There our bodies will no longer suffer any of the effects of sin.  No more fear, no more worry, no more suffering at the hands of Satan & those who follow Him.  There will be no more confusion, stumbling or ignorance.   The lawlessness & corruption of our day & time will be gone.  People will love, honor & respect each other, & they will no longer be disobedient & arrogant. 
In our churches today, Christians are not being directly persecuted as they were in Peter’s day.  We aren’t being thrown into the lion’s den nor are we being slaughtered in the football stadiums.  Our persecution takes a more subtle form.  We are being persecuted by all the people who were raised in the faith but have abandoned it for more interesting pursuits. 
This morning, as Jan & I were getting ready, at 7:30 am I could hear baseball practice begin across the road from our home.  In many families, sports have taken the place of God.  That may sound rather harsh  only because all of us have become so accustomed to it.  Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy  is for our benefit,  but many don’t see it that way. 
Do non sporting family events take precedence over the 3rd commandment?  Those examples aren’t as obvious, but many family gatherings today preclude attending church.  When weddings are on a Saturday, often there’s a brunch on Sunday morning that takes the place of being in God’s house. 
That kind of persecution of our faith may seem harmless, but Satan’s intent behind it  is anything but harmless.  Peter’s letter is meant to encourage us in spite of the attacks upon our 3rd commandment faith.  We fail, but we are not defeated.  We sin, but we are not damned.  We are abandoned in our churches on Sunday morning,  yet we are not alone. 
We may be ridiculed for making our faith a priority,  yet we will not be put to shame.  The Holy Spirit laid out God’s vision not just in Peter’s letter, but way back in Deuteronomy 7: “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.  The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession.  The Lord did not set His affection on you & choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.  But it was because the Lord loved you & kept the oath He swore to your ancestors that He brought you out with a mighty hand & redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”  (7:6-8) 
When Yahweh speaks, things happen.  When He calls us a chosen race,  that is what we become.  Children of God are unique in this world,  with our own culture that transcends all human cultures.  We have our own language that transcends all human languages.  We have our own light  that transcends all the darkness that exists in this world. 
The resurrection of Jesus from the dead was the dawn of God’s new creation.  As Peter wrote, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”  (1 Peter 2:10 ESV)  When Yahweh speaks, things happen.  He has set us apart from a world overshadowed by the doom of eternal death. 
We see that today in the confusion, stumbling & madness of the unbelievers.  Let us call them out of the darkness & into the marvelous light of Christ.  Amen. 
 
Ye seed of Israel’s chosen race,  ye ransomed from the fall,  hail Him who saves you by His grace  & crown Him Lord of all.   Hail Him who saves you by His grace  & crown Him Lord of all.  Amen.  LSB 549:3.